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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 63

The Marquis of Normanby to Captain Hobson, R.N

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The Marquis of Normanby to Captain Hobson, R.N.

Downing Street, 14th August, 1839.

Sir,—

Your appointment to the office of Her Majesty's consul at New Zealand, having been signified to you by Viscount Palmerston, and his lordship having conveyed to you the usual instructions for your guidance in that character, it remains for me to address you on the subject of the duties which you will be called to discharge, in a separate capacity, and under my own official superintendence.

* * * I have already stated that we acknowledge New Zealand as a sovereign and independent state, so far at least as it is possible to make that acknowledgement in favor of a people composed of numerous, dispersed, and petty tribes, who possess few political relations to each other; and are incompetent to act or even to deliberate in concert. But the admission of their rights though inevitably qualified by this consideration, is binding on the faith of the British Crown. The Queen, in common with Her Majesty's immediate predecessor, disclaims, for herself and for her subjects, every pretension to seize on the islands of New Zealand, or to govern them as a part of the dominion of Great Britian, unless the free and intelligent consent of the Natives, expressed according to their established usages, shall be first obtained. Believing, however, that their own welfare would, under the circumstances I have mentioned, be best promoted by the surrender to Her Majesty of a right now so precarious, and little more than nominal, and persuaded that the benefits of British protection, and of laws administered by British judges, would far more than compensate for the sacrifice by the Natives of a national independence, which they are no longer able to maintain, Her Majesty's Government have resolved to authorize you to treat with the aborigines of New Zealand for the recognition of Her Majesty's sovereign authority over the whole or any parts of those islands which they may be willing to place under Her Majesty's dominion.

* * * You will, I trust, find powerful auxiliaries amongst the page ii missionaries, who have won and deserved their confidence, and amongst the older British residents who have studied their character, and acquired their language. * * *

If it should be necessary to propitiate their consent by presents or other pecuniary arrangements, you will be authorized to advance at once, to a certain extent, in meeting such demands, and beyond those limits you will reserve and refer them for the decision of Her Majesty's Government.

All dealings with the aborigines for their lands must be conducted on the same principles of sincerity, justice, and good faith, as must govern your transactions with them for the recognition of Her Majesty's sovereignty in the islands. * * *

" I have, &c.,

(Signed)

Normanby.

Captain Hobson, R.N.